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CES 2007
 Escalante
Design’s Freemont loudspeakers ($19k) looked
their best shown with Jeff Rowland Design
Group's stereo amplifier (Nordost cabling was
used throughout). Here's an absolutely
beautiful picture of a room that was not
immune to the room's poor partitions. Sound
from the adjoining room poured in so often
Escalante's chief designer Tierry Budge (photo
left) decided not to become discouraged and
made the better of the situation by taking
time out for photos and to catch up with old
friends instead of losing his cool. Bravo.
Fortunately for Escalante, they were
displaying in two other rooms, one featuring a
heck of loudspeaker, the Pinyons.
 LA
Audio, makers of fine tube electronics that
are built in Taiwan, caught my attention when
they referenced their wonderful sounding P-300
tube monos with none other than the Coherence
Stage loudspeakers from Italian Omicron Group
Inc ($19,500). This transducer just so happens
to be one of my favorite loudspeakers because
they employ the seldom seen Heil ESS Air
Motion Transfer tweeter. Used in an open
baffle design, the sound briefly reminded me
of last year’s showroom when designer Mauro
Mauri had a showstopper of a sound. Mauri
chose not to attend this year's show while LA
Audio had the most unfortunate luck of being
right next door to the Sunny Cable room where
the 700 lb. Majestic Horn Loudspeakers played
loud... REAL loud. Considering the room's poor
acoustics and close proximity to Mr. Majestic,
one wonders if Mauri's no-show proved
serendipitous.
 There's
an unmistakable bond that tubes create when
mated with the right planar ribbon loudspeaker
or tweeter that many music lovers call magic.
Personally, planar ribbons and tubes were the
very thing that attracted me to this hobby. I
eventually ended up with a pair of Maggie
3.5s, strapped to a pair of Conrad Johnson
Premier 12 monos. The Convergent Audio
Technology JL2 stereo amplifier ($13,500) when
paired with the Ascendo System Z ($25,500), is
no exception and in some ways pushed the
limits (dynamically speaking) further. This
combo floored me when I first heard them in
Frankfurt, Germany back in '03 and here in
this nicely decorated but acoustically
hazardous room, amazingly did not disappoint.
Credit the neighbors who luckily did not play
music during my time spent enjoying this
setup. CAT's principal designer Ken Stevens,
debuted the new SL1 Legend preamplifier
($15,900 photo left), that brought a smile to
Stevens' face when mentioned.
Globe Audio
Marketing loves to show off at these events.
How can you blame them when they get such
gorgeous results with virtual unknowns. The
Austrian built WLM Diva loudspeaker, boasting
a specially built concentric twin-driver rated
at 97 dB efficiency sounded utterly delightful
again. I spent an extended time listening to
this loudspeaker at last year's CES and was
quite taken by the simple design approach and
utter musicality. Tuning the WLM Diva to suit
one's tastes under various listening
conditions is also possible by way of a nifty
rear mounted tweeter control. Sensitivity
being this high has certain virtues. One of
them is the 16 watt per channel, RCM Bonasus
stereo tube integrated amplifier ($8,500) from
Poland. I simply don't know how the guys from
Globe Audio find such rare commodities but
I'll vouch for the organic quality that was
coming from this great setup...yet again.
Israel Blume,
designer behind Coincident Loudspeakers, is
quite the happy chap these days representing
the Manley Tube Flag of Audiophiles with his
newest affordable loudspeaker in the Total
Eclipse Mk II ($8,999). Yours truly reviewed
Blume's original Eclipse back in 2000 and was
quite impressed not only by the wonderful
sonics that came via this 94 dB/14 Ohm
stress-free design, but also its real-world
price tag.
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